Minimally invasive medical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of tissue that is damaged during interventional procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. Such minimally invasive techniques may be performed through natural orifices in a patient anatomy or through one or more surgical incisions. Through these natural orifices or incisions clinicians may insert interventional instruments (including surgical, diagnostic, therapeutic, or biopsy instruments) to reach a target tissue location. To reach the target tissue location, a minimally invasive interventional instrument may navigate natural or surgically created passageways in anatomical systems such as the lungs, the colon, the intestines, the kidneys, the heart, the circulatory system, or the like. Some minimally invasive medical instruments may be teleoperated or otherwise computer-assisted. Telerobotic interventional instruments may be used to navigate through the patient anatomy, and such instruments need to be small enough to physically fit within those anatomical lumens. Manufacturing a flexible telerobotic instrument that is sized to contain the mechanical structures suitable for remote or telerobotic operation and that has an outer diameter that is sufficiently small to navigate such small passageways can be challenging. Improved devices and systems are needed for telerobotic surgical instruments configured for insertion into anatomical or surgically-created passageways.